From a teenager’s eye: The snow day debate

Snow days. While they create a wonderful little break away from school, this year, combined with the week Darien Public Schools had off from super-storm Sandy, students, parents, and teachers alike are starting to ponder the possibility of having April Break canceled as many schools in the Connecticut area already have.

Sure, snow days as a little kid are the greatest thing in the world.

As an elementary school student, it was my utopia to wake up, find snow on my roof and lawn, run down to family room, turn on to News 12, impatiently wait for the school cancelations to turn to the letter “D,” and see the wonderful phrase, “Darien Public Schools: Closed Today.”

Unfortunately, with increasing age, I have finally come to the realization that having snow days is not the greatest of ideas.

This is primarily because every day missed just adds on to the schedule in June. And you can call me crazy, but I rather spend my vacation relaxing at the beach with friends than shoveling my driveway in the biting cold.

Besides the fact of the cold, I find snow days make it hard for me to hang out with friends. The biggest reason for this is because the driving situation, or lack thereof. Since I do not have my permit or license yet, I am required to asking my parents for rides from one place to another.

Ninety nine percent of the time getting rides from my parents is not a limiting factor, but on snow days my parents are reluctant to drive to my friend’s house and risk possible safety. My mom’s car is a Honda Odyssey, which is not that great in snow. While I do agree with my parents on that term, it adds to the reason why snow days are not the greatest time of the year.

An added problem for this year’s snow days and time off from super-storm Sandy is the threat of losing a break.

Luckily for us, the recent snowstorm only had us miss one day of school, while in upstate Connecticut the devastation was much worse and some schools missed up to a week of school.

This caused many of these schools to cancel their February break or shorten their February break. Norwalk Public School was one of these schools, and they shortened their break by three days. It is also rumored that Stamford Public Schools is thinking about canceling their April break.

A Darien student can only think that the same fate may be in place for Darien Public Schools if any more snow days occur.

While I personally don’t think students, parents, and teachers should be penalized for Mother Nature’s irregularities, I see where the administration could be coming from if they did such a thing.

And when school is out relatively early in June, I think most may agree that while the decision was unpopular, it all worked out in the end.

Brendan Ferguson is a sophomore at Darien High School and has written for the Neirad, the high school’s newspaper.